Jody Gordon, assistant professor of humanities and social sciences, was a recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Digital Humanities Start-Up Grant, which brought an international conference of archaeologists to Wentworth.

Mark Hasso, professor in the College of Architecture, Design and Construction Management, was named the ENR New England 2015 Legacy Award. Hasso was honored for his more than 30 years of combined engineering and construction management experience. ENR is a construction marketplace publication based in New York.

Joanne Tuck, professor of humanities and social sciences, announced her retirement after more than 30 years at Wentworth. Tuck is recognized for her dedication to her “Facing History, Facing Ourselves” course.

Gary Wolf, adjunct professor, is working with his students on the Concord Museum exhibit “Middlesex County Modern.” Students’ projects and presentations focus on “Invisible Modernism.”

Charles Hotchkiss

Staff

Peter Fowler, associate dean of students, was appointed to the role of Massachusetts state director for Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education (NASPA). Fowler previously served as membership coordinator for Mass. NASPA, whose mission is to be the principal source of leadership, scholarship, professional development, and advocacy for student affairs.

Charles Hotchkiss was named the dean of the College of Architecture, Design and Construction Management. Hotchkiss previously served as associate provost at Wentworth.

Liem Van Tran, director of new program development in the College of Professional and Continuing Education, earned the 2015 University Professional & Continuing Education Association (UPCEA) Engagement Award. Tran accepted the award at UPCEA’s 100th annual conference in Washington D.C.Students

Mallory Hudak

Mallory Hudak, BINT ’15, took first place in the International Interior Design Associates New England Student Scholarship competition. Hudak won $1,200 for her portfolio, which places an
emphasis on collaboration hubs and draws inspiration from the use of light in city locations. Karsyn Sawyer, BINT ’16, was also named as a finalist in the competition.

Elliot Nwaobi, BEET ’17, created artwork that was featured in the 2015 Colleges of the Fenway Martin Luther King, Jr. Breakfast
event.

Amanda Waryasz, BINT ’17, was named the overall winner of the first Design Showdown event, co-hosted by Design New England and the Boston Design Center. Five Wentworth sophomores, including Waryasz, competed at the event, which asked students from various schools to present their interpretations of a Boston space to a panel of judges.

“Our design goal was to create something that contained interlocking pieces and moved,” he says. “I decided to take a creative route.”

Houtchens’ creativity came to him in the form of a bird, one that would flap its wings when a lever was pulled.

“I was sitting on my couch at home and it just came into my head,” he recounts, adding that he quickly sketched a design on paper before entering it into Solidworks, a three-dimensional software design program.

The entire process took only a matter of hours. Houtchens brought the design the next day to his professor, Steve Chomyszak, and they headed to the Manufacturing Center. The 3D printing process took roughly a day, followed by two days of soaking the bird in a chemical bath to remove excess plastic. Chomyszak believes projects like Houtchens’s perfectly combine ingenuity with creativity while using a cutting-edge technology.

“3D printing is important because it allows all students from various engineering disciplines to partake in the making aspect of learning,” says Chomyszak.

Listening to bedtime stories. Building with Legos. Watching Toy Story at the drive-in. These are childhood pastimes that Joe Bradford, BIND ’12, isn’t quite ready to give up. And as designer in the Boy’s Gaming division at Hasbro, he doesn’t have to.

“Storytelling is a thread that runs through all of product design,” Bradford says. “I get to tell the story of actual characters and emotions through toys.”

He works on licensed games within the Marvel and Star Wars brands, developing board games in conjunction with movie launches (think Star Wars Wookiee Chewbacca in the Millennium Falcon battling stormtroopers). The process typically takes eight to 12 months, and Bradford is involved in every stage of the design process, from initial concepts to final product—including brainstorming games from movie scenes, developing and balancing game mechanics, designing mockups and 3D models, and reviewing production samples before manufacturing. Some of the funniest moments come during product testing with tough customers: kids.

“You have this preconceived notion of what they will like and not like, and then they just completely tear it apart in front of you,” he laughs, describing what happens in the company’s Fun Lab.
His favorite board game design is Star Wars Risk (available now), based on “the epic final moments” of Episode Six (Return of the Jedi). “I remember watching Star Wars at my grandmother’s house, and playing Risk with my brother and sister, Bradford says. As a kid you don’t think you’ll be working on the things you love.”

Family also played a role in choosing to major in industrial and product design. “My mom stayed home and we did lots of arts and crafts,” he recalls of growing up in a tight-knit Italian family in Londonderry, N.H. “I knew I wanted to be hands on and work in a creative field from a young age.”

But it hasn’t been only about superheroes and galaxy wars. At Wentworth, Bradford’s senior thesis focused on brain training to help improve neural pathways for people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. (It won Best Directed Studies Project). He also worked on community-based design campaigns at Design Museum Boston (founded by Wentworth professors Sam Aquillano and Derek Cascio).

And while he originally planned on a career in high-end housewares, Bradford landed in the universe of toys—inspired after back-to-back internships at Rhode Island-based Hasbro during his junior year.

“Don’t be afraid to take opportunities outside of your comfort zone,” he says, “because you might discover something you love.” —KRISTEN L. WALSH

When Michael Santora, BSA ’05, turned 26, he gave himself an unusual birthday present: He quit his job at M. Moser Associates, a Manhattan-based design firm where he had been the youngest director in company history, and started his own business—a goal he had been striving toward since he was 12 years old.

To be one’s own boss is a common aspiration, but even as a boy Santora took that ambition a few steps further. Growing up in Stamford, Conn., he was inspired by an urge to shape city life when he sketched out a plan to build his own vertically integrated real estate, architecture and engineering conglomerate. And today it’s that vertical integration that makes his Manhattan-based Crown Architecture and Consulting, Inc., unique.

“Most firms focus on a niche,” Santora says. “But we feel we can become more efficient by not having to interact with other consultants, thus making us faster and more cost effective to the client.”

Today, Crown is a multimillion-dollar company with an eclectic portfolio of restaurants, residences, commercial buildings, schools, and medical clinics. The firm has expanded into development and expediting, and Santora notes proudly, “We have outgrown our office four times.”

The firm is looking to expand further, Santora says, and he hopes that will mean hiring graduates from his alma mater. To that end, he has been working to create co-op opportunities for Wentworth students at Crown and at other New York City firms. Well-aware of the educational value of co-ops—he did three with the New York firm Attick & Nystrom Architects while an undergraduate—he also admits that the effort is “a little selfish. I really support Wentworth’s educational style. In general, they produce much more realworld- ready students.” Santora has also created an endowment fund to provide scholarships for future Wentworth architecture students—a way, he says, to show his gratitude for the financial aid that helped him take that big birthday risk. Without the scholarships he received and the education they paid for, he says, “I wouldn’t have been able to start my own business at 26.” —Amy Crawford

Nick Greene, BSA ’09, MArch ’10, document control assistant for the Clark Art Institute’s massive renovation and campus expansion program, completed last year, is passionate about his work, and it shows. He speaks with enthusiasm on subjects ranging from his childhood in the Berkshires to his experience as a Wentworth student to art and architecture, to—most frequently—the renovations at the Clark and his work there over the past three years. On this topic, he riffs on architect Tadao Ando’s vision, the marriage of art and nature on the Clark’s 140-acre campus, and, perhaps most enthusiastically, his love of concrete.

“The concrete here is really spectacular,” Greene says, gesturing toward the walls of the Clark Center, the 42,000-square-foot, two-level centerpiece of the Clark’s new construction. “Especially in New England, people understand concrete to be something used to structurally support something else, he continues. “They think of it as a material that is poured, stripped, and then buried and never seen again. What the Clark wanted here was to show the intention of its materials. It’s almost ironic for a New England institution to essentially celebrate their concrete and unashamedly show it off.” This thoughtfulness and attention to detail has served Greene well throughout his experience at the Clark. After working as an architect following his graduation from Wentworth, Greene responded to an ad posted by the Clark seeking someone with “a background in architecture, construction management, or both,” Greene recalls.

Although the position was not design-based, the opportunity to work on a project led by the Pritzker-Prize-winning Ando was too enticing to pass up. Performing tasks including document control and financial tracking, Greene quickly learned what he calls “the nuts and bolts of keeping a project moving financially,” and was promoted to document control assistant in 2012. Greene’s enthusiasm for both art and architecture is apparent on a tour of the renovated Clark. In addition to the brand-new Clark Center, the project includes a renovation of the original museum building and an expansion of galleries, an ongoing renovation of the Manton Research Center, and redesign and reconfiguration of the Clark’s grounds, including installation of more than two miles of walking trails and a gorgeous set of tiered reflecting pools. “There are gestures,” Greene explains, “that allow you to see nature and art at the same time.”

With the Clark project now complete, Greene is looking ahead to his next challenge—a position with James Dixon Architect in Chatham, N.Y., as an architectural designer.
“The Clark position was a wonderful way to educate myself in all aspects of what you can be and what you need to do if you are going to work around design and construction,” Greene says. “It’s been an incredible learning experience.” —Caleb Cochran

The Wentworth community was left saddened and stunned last March when Sean Paradis, BSA ’13, M.Arch ’14, a standout athlete and dean’s list student during his time at the institute, was killed in a snowboarding accident at age 23. Friends and family, inspired by Sean’s positive outlook on life, honored his memory with the creation of the Sean K. Paradis Memorial Scholarship.

Daniel Russo coached Paradis in lacrosse for four years at Wentworth and currently coaches Sean’s brother, Alec. The team retired Sean’s number 6 earlier this year. “For Sean, it was never about him, but rather his teammates,” says Russo. “He displayed an outstanding work ethic and approached the sport with integrity and passion. He meant a great deal to me and the rest of the coaching staff.”

To make a contribution to the Sean K. Paradis Memorial Scholarship Fund, visit wit.edu/giving and select “Sean Paradis Memorial” under the designations section.To contribute by mail, send a check to:

Douglas Roy, CET ‘88, CEC ‘89, visited the Wentworth campus on March 31 to speak
to a group of civil engineering students in Blount Auditorium about his career and
finding success within the field. Roy (pictured center) is currently a principal and
district office manager for the GZA GeoEnvironmental New York office.

March 28 Trustee Christine Keville was recognized with the ninth annual Woman of the Year Award at the Women@Wentworth event last spring. Hosted by the Wentworth Alumni Association, the event
featured a panel of women who shared personal success stories and advice on how to break through the proverbial glass ceiling in fields that have been historically male-dominated.

David Blittersdorf, MDE ’77 and President Zorica Pantić (Photo by Greg Abozorius)

David Blittersdorf, MDE ’77, knows a thing or two about sustainability. The founder of AllEarth Renewables, a Vermont-based company that makes, sells, and installs residential solar-power systems, Blittersdorf has been at the forefront of sustainable technology for more than 30 years. So it’s fitting that the new Blittersdorf Professorship Fund at Wentworth is focused on faculty whose scholarly work is geared toward sustainable engineering, technology, design, and management.
Blittersdorf cited the Institute’s “do, learn, succeed” ethos and dedication to educating new generations of service-oriented engineers.
“Wentworth is inarguably one of the top schools of its kind in the country,” he said.

“This gift exemplifies David’s determination to support education and give back,” said Wentworth President Zorica Pantić. “And it reflects the vision that has marked his career as a pioneer in solar and wind energy.”
The professorship will be rotated every three to five years, and may be awarded to a current faculty member or a new hire. The first Blittersdorf professor, Mansour Zenouzi of the Mechanical Engineering and Technology Department, was named this fall.